Another thing to be aware of with the FS Atis (at least for FSX), is that the "ATIS INFORMATION" (for a given airport) is not the same for each pilot.

When you start FSX, the Atis information for a given aiport will auto-incrememt, each time there is a significant change, so the LETTER that it currently is, is more an indiaction of how long your SIM has been running, than anything else.

So when you hear your ATIS, say at KLAX say "INFORMATION DELTA", someone else also at KLAX could be listening to "THEIR SIM's ATIS", and might hear INFORMATION HOTEL.

PIlots ( more unrealistically), are forced to say something like "CURRENT ATIS", or "NUMBERS" to avoid this confusion.

Keith, maybe you can give a ruling on this, I suspect choosing the First Option, keeping the Phrasiology correct, and making everyone aware (especially the controllers) of the SIM's limitation, to avoid confusion.

There is some training value in pilots going through the process of checking ATIS prior to calling ATC for taxi. The mechanism by which they report that they have the current weather simply isn't of a concern to PE controllers.

If pilots have checked weather through an external source and bypass their ATIS system, knowing that unlike the real world the built-in ATIS is doing nothing other than read the weather, that's fine. In that case, "have numbers" is quite reasonable and is technically accurate for that situation.

If pilots would like to report THEIR atis code, that's fine, so long as they realize the limitation that some of the information may be inaccurate.

The inconsistent use of ATIS codes vs "have numbers" is a non-issue for PE controllers, and, I suspect, for pilots alike.

When the time comes that we have our own custom ATIS, then there will be a way to standardize the reporting. For now, it's up to each pilot how they elect to model that process.

What I need to do is document this in the formal documentation on the web site. I'll add it to the list.

I stumbled across this thread tonight and never knew that I could get the 'verbal' ATIS through X-Planes 'real weather' using COM2. So I got excited only to find that I can't get it to work as described. I am using Windows 7, XP 9.7 with Saitek radios. The first thing I discover is that I cannot get to the XP text windows by hitting the enter key when VSPro is enabled in the plugins folder. Second thing is that I am not getting any verbal ATC through the COM2 radio when tuned to the 'real world' ATIS frequency at any given airfield. My sound preferences are set to enable ATC verbal and text and have tried combination's of both. I have also tried logged into PE and not logged into PE. Any other advice would be appreciated as I would love to have this feature.

I have the Saitek radio panels and the ATIS works for me at most airports. There are a few that even without the VSPro plugin installed do not automatically broadcast. Make sure you have turned on your COM2 radio on the panel of your aircraft. Just because you tuned in your COM2 radio does not mean it is the active radio. You have to activate the radio.